1 Hey, Upotte is coming out!

2 I nominate AKB0048 for next season's Wonderduck recap!

-j

3 Given how AKB0048 is from the same guy who did Macross 7...Why not?

4 I may look at Naruto SD.

5 Tasogare no Otome should at least give you some good screenshots.

6

As usual, there are several series which invoke the "They can't really be doing such a thing, can they?" response.

Upotte is kind of like that for me. My first reaction was, "It's Akikan, except with guns." That's just based on the blurb; I know nothing at all about the show. But how do you create a worthwhile multi-episode show about moe anthropomorphizations of firearms? It's the mecha-musume fetish taken to its illogical extreme.

AKB0048 sounds to me like a complete train wreck. It's a high concept show, which begins with the concept, "Wow! We got AKB48 to agree to do the voices for an anime. Now what do we do with them?"

I dunno; "heroic idols" is almost an oxymoron to me, despite the amazingly large number of shows which have been based on it (e.g. the Pretty Cure franchise).

7 I'm not arguing that it's any good or anything. I just had a friend point me to the manga a while back, and I read a volume and got a few chuckles out of it. I'll probably take a look just to see what direction they take it, but there's plenty of potential for suck.

Then again, Strike Witches turned out okay even though it got a double dose of say-what? premise ("Girls who are gender-swapped historical fighter pilots with leg units based on WW2 planes? Who never wear pants? Really, now...")

I'll probably look at the SD Naruto one as well. I generally enjoy SD parodies and there's a lot of comic potential to tap there...

8

Upotte sounds to me like a one-trick pony. It would work pretty well for a one- or two-episode OVA. I can't see how it could work for a series.

But you're right about Strike Witches. That was at least as stupid of a concept, and they did make it work.

9 Sakura Taizen had an idol troupe that fought using mecha. There was even a Western cartoon series where anthropomorphic hippos (or dinos) moonlighted as crime fighters in a Big-O like faux-1930 setting.

10 Well, I could quibble that the girls in Sakura Wars weren't really idols, but I guess they were. You got me; I liked that show.

11 Steven, I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about the Saki spinoff!

I'm all for Train Hero to be the recap, actually... that sounds completely stupid.

12 I don't understand why they'd do a Saki spinoff instead of just finishing Saki.

13 And it's a yet another studio, too. Can't wait for Saki Final by Kyoto Ani in Spring 2013.

14 Accel World - YES!!

15 Surprisingly little this season. I'll watch the second season of Zombie, and probably give Hyou-ka and Yurumates a go, though neither seems especially interesting. Then, I might watch some of the shows the fansub groups I follow pick up.

16 AKB did the voices for an anime once, Project ICE.
It was a disaster. 

17 BTW, no Dog Days 2. It's going to be a long wait.

18 I wonder what happened to that one?

19 Nothing interesting on the official Dog Days site since the release of the Yukikaze pillow cover. No release dates or progress reports.

-j